Developed exclusively for Formula 1000 rallying, Oaktec's tuned Insight returned 100 miles per gallon when pushed slowly and nearly 82 mpg when the pace quickened. Since Formula 1000 emphasizes both mileage and speed, the race-prepped Insight dominated the start of the 2011 season with two wins and a second-place finish after three events. This, competitors argued, was unfair.

So, after six years spent prepping the hybrid for competition, Oaktec boss Paul Andrews got the call from race organizers and was told the Insight is banned from competition. Andrews says:

It's a shame it had to happen mid-season but it's the risk you face in going against the grain and trying something radical. If it fails, no one notices; if it's successful, you have an unfair advantage.

Oaktec is looking to re-enter Formula 1000 in a class where the competition likely won't whine as much if the Insight dominates.

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So super efficient engine + cvt + lithium battery pack + one of the most areodynamic production vehicles ever = 100mpg is not very surprising. It shows what vehicle manufacturers could produce if they really cared about efficiency. I am not sure what you could do to improve efficiency besides using an EV1 body made out of carbon fiber. An aptera might be more slippery, but it would not handle a rally course as easily. It is disappointing that they were booted from the competition for doing too well. They should rename themselves "Team Awesome!"

Well said! I am sick of hearing fanfares from automakers for 30mpg cars when a bunch of amateurs can build a 100mpg car in the garage, or some student builds a 200mpg car in his basement. Ok they have safety standards to follow and other stuff but why such foot-dragging.

The problem isn't that it can't be done, it's that the Insight was still a small two-seater car, and beyond that it was never sold at a profit. Those lightweight materials weren't cheap at all and modern hybrids actually have to sell profitably in order to be sold in large volumes. So the problem is mostly that it'd be a very costly car to produce. You can't just build a car that's super efficent, you have to build it so that you can actually sell it in large volumes while not losing money.

That's the thing though. The first gen insight is up to the safety standards of it's day ( last model was made in 2006 ). It wouldn't be too far off to update it to current ones. It goes deeper than safety !

He's been asked to move to a new class. Not terribly unusual when your car shows it doesn't fit in the class the organizers thought it would. Kudos for him to making such a great competitor. But let's not get weird here. Nothing is banned, he was asked to move to a more appropriate class.

i dont know whats going on, but from every corner i see people comment negative things to efficiency. what is that about??? this is super efficiency and its gets negativity. tesla...negativity for the survival of the company. thailand electric cars?...illegal to drive on the road because the registration process cannot calculate the power into cc, nevermind the other benefits...or negatives from the thai society. smart grid...solar is not good, wind is not good...lets all go to nuclear and cover the planet in a toxic material that doesnt go away for 10s of thousands of years. whatever happened to an organisation for the people? it is getting quite disappointing...especially when i see people in thailand erecting another golden temple from the donations of the poor people (whos salary is quite minimal) when that money could be used for so many greater purposes, especially when there are already millions of temples across the entire country...but i guess thats another issue overall. sorry went a bit off topic...

Anonymous

America only polls liberal if you poll liberal voters. We are very much a divided country with a small group of independents that generally swing national elections. Reagan won reelection by winning 49 states and only got 59% of the vote. Most presidents win with less than %53 of the vote. As for the post, whenever a car dominates the competition it is either penalized or banned. It happened to Audi when they were the only ones running road races with 4 wheel drive. It happened to the Nissan GT-R in Australia.

Isn't that ridiculous? A rally set up specifically to achieve high mileage at reasonably high speeds, and when someone does extremely well - the goal of the rally - the competition cries foul, and they're banned for being too good and actually achieving the stated goals of the rally! Please note that there is no evidence of cheating, just being too good. So what's next? Are we going to see other top competitors being banned for being "too good"? Is this competition going to be a race to mediocrity? If so, we might as well tell the rally organizers that we're no longer interested.

Look at NASCAR, they have lots of limits on how much modification can be done. I think if they played within the rules, it should be up to the other competitors to come close to matching what they have done.